Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4O-04457

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 03 June 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 11 June 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it last carried out a general survey of the country's mineral and rare earth resources.

Question reference: S4O-04365

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 20 May 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 27 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government when it last met the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Question reference: S4O-04323

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 06 May 2015
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 13 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages the teaching of Mandarin in schools.

The Scottish Government provides annual funding to the Confucius Institute for Scotland’s Schools (CISS) at the University of Strathclyde to encourage young people to learn Mandarin, as well as about Chinese culture and history. CISS also provides language immersion visits for young people and head teachers from Scottish schools to visit China to establish and foster links.

Since 2008 we have launched 14 Confucius Classroom Hubs serving eight local authorities across Scotland, with a further three to follow later in 2015. Each of these classrooms hosts at least one visiting teacher from their partner schools in Tianjin to facilitate the teaching of Chinese language and culture in primary and secondary schools. We have also supported the development and implementation of qualifications in Mandarin and Cantonese.

Question reference: S4O-04284

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 29 April 2015
Current Status: Taken in the Chamber on 6 May 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what benefits it considers the EU brings to Scotland.

Question reference: S4W-25121

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 16 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many (a) agency and (b) sub-contracted staff are employed by the Scottish Social Services Council, broken down by (i) role and (ii) hiring cost.

Question reference: S4W-25122

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 16 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government how many Scottish Social Services Council employees received a salary of over £100,000 in 2013-14.

Question reference: S4W-25123

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Thursday, 26 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fiona McLeod on 16 April 2015

To ask the Scottish Government what the (a) budgeted and (b) actual expenditure was for the Scottish Social Services Council's information technology services in 2013-14.

Question reference: S4W-24985

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether National Grid has advised it what impact the use of power barges for the provision of electricity system services could have on resilience.

Question reference: S4W-24983

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has asked National Grid what its alternative is to procuring electricity system services from thermal generation and, if so, what information National Grid has provided.

The Scottish Government has regular dialogue with National Grid on a range of matters relating to electricity security of supply in Scotland and the way the system operator fulfils its responsibilities. National Grid procures electricity system services from a wide range of different types of generation and flexible demand sources in order to operate the transmission system in an efficient, economic and co-ordinated manner consistent with its licence obligations. National Grid publishes regular updates on the balancing services they procure via their website (http://www2.nationalgrid.com/uk/services/balancing-services/).

National Grid has advised the Scottish Government that companies operating power barges are free to enter its current tender exercise for transmission constraint management services for Scotland in 2016-17. Precise details relating to the actual bidders in that exercise are subject to strict confidentiality arrangements but at the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee on 11 March 2015 Mike Calviou of National Grid revealed they are considering three options including “an innovative new provider of services”.

The Scottish Government is not aware that power barges have been used previously in the UK for constraint management and has conveyed its concerns on the deliverability of this option in the timescales envisaged for the 2016-17 transmission constraint management exercise. National Grid has not provided any advice to the Scottish Government about what the impact would be on the resilience of the electricity system of using floating power barges to provide additional system services compared with conventional thermal generating capacity.

Question reference: S4W-24984

Asked by: Chic Brodie, MSP for South Scotland, Scottish National Party
Date lodged: Wednesday, 18 March 2015
Current Status: Answered by Fergus Ewing on 30 March 2015

To ask the Scottish Government whether National Grid had advised it that it was considering the use of power barges for the provision of electricity system services.